tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61158966062358704502011-11-28T02:35:26.719+01:00Voila, a little expo on everything going on here in France. For the next year. I’m living in Montbéliard a small city in central eastern France. It’s an hour from Besançon, the city I studied in, the summer of 2006. Montbéliard is home to the Peugeot car factory, great Franche-comte cheeses like cancoillotte and comte and now me! While I’m here, I’ll be teaching 8-11 year olds English at 3 different primary schools.Lindsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12890958948862765914noreply@blogger.comBlogger231100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6115896606235870450.post-27905169098875496392008-04-25T10:16:00.005+02:002008-04-25T14:48:20.788+02:00

This post goes out to everyone for all the calls, cards, messages, gifts and sweet birthday gestures sent a couple weeks of go. I apologize if I was unable to receive your call or call you back, but I want to let you know you all helped to make my birthday feel extra special, especially since I'm not home to celebrate in your company.This year's celebration was a bit of a deviation from the last

Lindsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12890958948862765914noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6115896606235870450.post-18992658950004664052008-03-26T16:00:00.006+01:002008-03-26T16:30:24.509+01:00

     Ok, call me old or maybe a crappy 20-something year-old, but I must admit that one of my favorite things to do with friends is have dinner parties.  This all started with weekly dinner parties (Thursday, then Wednesday nights) with my chère Alli at Penn State. Slowly but surely though, the dinner parties increased to fiestas at Meg and Petra's, crêpe and mimosa weekend mornings and of course

Lindsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12890958948862765914noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6115896606235870450.post-12573106135549964442008-03-25T23:40:00.004+01:002008-03-26T00:30:00.098+01:00

     Hello all. Again I must apologize for being lazy about these blog entries, but truth be told I've been traveling a lot on the weekends, leaving less time to catch up with writing. Luckily, I have kept the photo albums almost completely up to date, so please check those out.      With a little help from Uncle "french" Sam, I now have a little extra spending money. Man socialist governments

Lindsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12890958948862765914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6115896606235870450.post-23859959633430144572008-03-11T10:33:00.008+01:002008-03-12T00:44:36.738+01:00

     As you may have noticed from some new pictures I uploaded, I finally got myself over and into the heart of the Alpes. Two weeks ago, on a whim, I traveled to Chamonix to try skiing for the first time. Now while I'd like to think of myself as moderately athletic, I have to admit that when it comes to snow related sports, I'm less than gifted. In fact, I'm down right pathetic on any ski slope

Lindsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12890958948862765914noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6115896606235870450.post-9156696524313360952008-02-22T23:57:00.003+01:002008-02-23T01:08:45.373+01:00

That's right folks after another six of weeks of teaching, France has granted me two weeks of vacation. I know your jealousy might be starting to really brew right about now, but don't be envious come out here and join the fun instead! While I didn't plan this vacation any earlier than the others, I had a really good idea of where I wanted to go and the means to do so.  After trying to swallow

Lindsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12890958948862765914noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6115896606235870450.post-65200679040344176022008-02-06T19:55:00.000+01:002008-02-06T20:10:41.494+01:00

     I'm currently teaching my kids clothing. We've already gone through all the vocabulary, so now we're working on using the vocab to describe what you're wearing. At the beginning of the year, I gave all my students an English passport that asks questions like "what's your name", "how old are you", "do you have any pets" etc. They love their passports and are constantly asking me when they'll

Lindsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12890958948862765914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6115896606235870450.post-52680642163179058632008-02-04T20:04:00.000+01:002008-02-04T20:57:54.240+01:00

This past Sunday, I finally attended my first wine festival, a long awaited experience that turned out to be picture perfect. Situated in the country side of the Franche-comte, specifically in the Jura region, this past Sunday celebrated the opening of the vin jaune (yellow wine), a wine very particular in aroma and taste and a speciality of the region I live in.  Vin Jaune, usually bottled in a

Lindsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12890958948862765914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6115896606235870450.post-30556591563295940182008-01-25T20:35:00.000+01:002008-01-26T16:17:25.547+01:00

I realized this past week how much I miss big city life. Since traveling to France, I've said that I prefer the French countryside and small town environment over the Parisian experience. I'm not sure why, but I think I was the only girl on this Earth that wasn't mesmerized by Paris upon my first visit. It's not that I didn't find the city beautiful and historically fascinating, I just never felt

Lindsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12890958948862765914noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6115896606235870450.post-39384897234625228882008-01-18T15:07:00.000+01:002008-01-18T16:10:33.681+01:00

You thought I would title this one, "American in Paris" well can't do that since we're not quite there yet. However, for the last week I have been hosting another dodgy American here in Montbéliard and by dodgy American, I mean my charmingly silly PSU friend, Luke.  Once again I apologize for being lazy about my blog. After a night or two of recreating this blog on a new site, I haven't had a

Lindsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12890958948862765914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6115896606235870450.post-37799027956638775802007-12-15T00:16:00.000+01:002008-01-31T01:14:31.961+01:00

A couple of random notes.1. The kids at my school in Herimoncourt wear slippers inside the school. I find this very odd. When I asked why, the kids didn’t seem to have an explanation, nor did they find it to be a bizarre habit. I know I would have felt a lot more comfortable in class wearing slippers, maybe that’s the reason why they act out more than my other schools do. Who knows.2. I’ve taken

Lindsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12890958948862765914noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6115896606235870450.post-83984514920911687442007-12-14T00:14:00.000+01:002008-01-09T19:31:26.684+01:00

Let me start off by apologizing again for how lazy I’ve been with keeping up with the blog. I’ve been a bit busier at school lately, since this past week I gave my kids their first exam aka I had a lot of tests to grade this past week. I’ve also recently acquired a television and fallen back into my bad habit of watching too much tv, which is actually a plus here, since almost all the tv is in

Lindsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12890958948862765914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6115896606235870450.post-12641498169169852332007-11-27T00:13:00.000+01:002008-01-09T00:27:10.001+01:00

This week in class, I decided I would take a break from teaching the kids new vocabulary and grammar and do something a little more fun (at least fun for me). While learning languages, I always liked learning music in that particular language, whether Sublime or Shakira songs for Spanish or Benabar songs for French. So now its my students’ turn to learn some English songs and what better music

Lindsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12890958948862765914noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6115896606235870450.post-37839852414091384532007-11-24T00:10:00.000+01:002008-01-09T19:32:11.812+01:00

So obviously, being in France, Thanksgiving was a bit different this year. It was my first time not attending the ritual Aunt Gayle festivities, which I really enjoy. So when Thanksgiving reared it’s head this year, I didn’t even really get the sense it was even a holiday. Of course, I tailored my lessons to explaining the holiday and different Thanksgiving recipes, but on Thursday night, there

Lindsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12890958948862765914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6115896606235870450.post-1294793969033980612007-11-21T00:08:00.000+01:002008-01-09T19:32:29.257+01:00

The Brasserie du Théâtre is officially my favorite bar in Montbéliard. Ok so let’s be honest, there aren’t that many bars to choose from here, but of the ones I’ve tried the Brasserie is by far my favorite.It’s not that they have amazing drinks here, or even drinks that are extremely inexpensive, it’s the informality of the joint. You walk in and you feel like you’ve just arrived at your best

Lindsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12890958948862765914noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6115896606235870450.post-31086849762878294952007-11-20T00:07:00.000+01:002008-01-09T19:32:48.565+01:00

First and foremost, I apologize for being so MIA lately, but nothing really note-worthy has happened in the past week. I stayed in Montbéliard this past weekend since my friend Natalie, another assistant came to visit me from Besançon. We had a more than relaxing weekend involving two movies (“Love Actually” -to get in the Christmas spirit and “Two for the Road” a personal Audrey Hepburn favorite

Lindsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12890958948862765914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6115896606235870450.post-80903366730621376282007-11-12T00:05:00.000+01:002008-01-09T19:33:11.000+01:00

Ok, I know this is a corny title for this entry, but you gotta love referencing The Wizard of Oz!Remember coming home from school for a weekend, where you’re exhausted from studying, over-partying and possible friend drama, just to plop yourself on the couch and know whole-heartedly that you have someone to take care of you and even better cook you warm meals. It’s that warm fuzzy feeling, that

Lindsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12890958948862765914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6115896606235870450.post-88493679236435395362007-11-09T00:04:00.000+01:002008-01-09T00:38:17.935+01:00

I wish I had a picture of my students’ faces when I asked them to rip a tiny piece of paper out of their notebooks. We were playing a game and I needed the kids to write down their phone numbers and put them in a bag, lottery style. I didn’t feel like giving out paper to do this, so I asked them simply to rip a corner off a sheet of paper and use that. OMG! They were shocked, almost scared. See

Lindsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12890958948862765914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6115896606235870450.post-7778049651961427432007-11-07T00:01:00.000+01:002008-01-09T19:33:33.495+01:00

I just got back from Basel, Switzerland tonight and I have to say, I loved the place and can’t wait to go back. I live about a an hour from Switzerland depending on how you get there, so for my first vacation, I traveled with my friend Jo, another language assistant, to Geneva. The whole trip was basically spur of the moment and it turned out really well for not planning anything in advance, a

Lindsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12890958948862765914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6115896606235870450.post-22135471162651248302007-11-02T23:58:00.000+01:002008-01-09T19:33:48.647+01:00

Ok so I know this is a hard picture to make out, but believe it or not thatcat is on a leash. I just thought I would share the sheer absurdity of this with you. The best part about the whole situation is that the cat’s owner continued down the street with the cat on her shoulder, neglecting to even use the damn leash!

Lindsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12890958948862765914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6115896606235870450.post-14675514039535863832007-11-01T23:55:00.000+01:002008-01-09T19:34:06.507+01:00

It’s vacation and magically I managed to sleep until 1:30 today. I don’t think I’ve been able to sleep in that late without the aid of heavy partying the night before in quite a few years. After the initial shock of what time it was, I managed to get myself out on the town to run the two errands I needed to take care of before departing for Switzerland tomorrow. I made sure to leave the

Lindsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12890958948862765914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6115896606235870450.post-30091810950895516582007-10-31T23:51:00.000+01:002008-01-09T19:34:25.782+01:00

For 3 years now, they’ve tried to adopt Halloween here in France. Unfortunately, it hasn’t really caught on. Some kids go trick or treating and they sell more candy or “bonbons” in the supermarket, but it definitely lacks the mass appeal that exists in the States.Before starting a 2 week vacation after only 2 weeks of work, I also taught all my classes about Halloween. While adorning some elf

Lindsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12890958948862765914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6115896606235870450.post-6327864557159174472007-10-30T23:45:00.000+01:002008-01-09T19:34:42.545+01:00

Note to self and others, I don’t suggest using Skype while sitting in an ally outside the Internet cafe. Not only do people stare, which who really cares about, but apparently it’s tabou.I left the Internet cafe initially so I wouldn’t be rude, while excitedly talking to my Phillippine-endeavored friend, Alli. I didn’t really mind the googling eyes, cause I was excited to finally use Skype. It

Lindsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12890958948862765914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6115896606235870450.post-25895430057301180942007-10-28T19:31:00.000+01:002008-01-08T20:36:40.193+01:00

Welcome to all the rambling that goes on in my head, as well as all the random shenanigans I'll be up to for the next year or so.  If there's anything you want to hear about in particular please send me an email and let me know or post a message.  I apologize in advance for any inadvertent French I may slip in and my overly-wordy style of writing. 

Lindsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12890958948862765914noreply@blogger.com0